Too cold

All I can do is shiver by the window and watch the people and buses go by. Looks like we’ve got a few more days of this chilly weather ahead.

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Jewels on Fulton

Remember, it’s all relative – maybe they are not precious jewels, and maybe they are pre-loved. What does Brick Squad mean, anyway? Head down to Fulton Mall to find out.

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Brooklyn’s Shake Shack

I didn’t believe it when I first heard there was a Shake Shack in Brooklyn, but it’s true. The NY Times says the Fulton Mall is going upscale. There used to be a pizza place here – if you have jury duty and want a cheap slice, you’ll have to look around.

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I Was Nurtured Here

I was drawn back to to Macy’s parking garage to see more of the “Love Letters to Brooklyn.” Many of us have some old city downtown in our pasts. It hardly matters the city, because there’s a similarity about fading department stores and their surrounds.

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Euphoria is You for Me

In 2011, Macy’s parking garage and surrounding buildings were decorated by Philadelphia artist and sign painter Stephen Powers (a.k.a. ESPO). He considers “Love Letter to Brooklyn” a painted poem; it was partly inspired by conversations with people he met in the area.

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Downtown crowd

A serious-looking group. No one was smiling for the camera and I didn’t ask them to.

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Souvlaki House

The food tastes better when the cook is wearing a white cap. The Souvlaki House, steps off the Fulton Mall, has the best gyros around (or so they say). Their other specialty is ke bobs, aka, grilled food on a skewer.

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Fulton Mall, run down & under repair

When every third store is a cell phone store, you can be sure you won’t be seeing a Saks Fifth Avenue soon. Fulton Mall still its Macy’s; if that were to go, the shopping area would really be in trouble.

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Just stay in Brooklyn

To see this sign is to think of Hubert Selby Jr.’s book, Last Exit to Brooklyn, if you’re familiar with it. Bursting with profanity, violence, prostitution, and sexual confusion, it caused an enormous stir when it was published in 1964. The 1989 movie was dark, but had some good performances and was quite watchable.

Today in Brooklyn:  gray, cloudy, periods of rain. Most of the traffic was coming in rather than leaving.

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Sitting and talking

He looks like a contractor on break. There’s lots of street work going on near the corner of Jay St. and Fulton.

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